Choice

re-post

Some people are of the opinion that it is very important that guests have the choice of whether to keep their shoes on or not.

However, it is not as simple as that. Some choices may impose on the choices of others.

Some visitors may want to take their shoes off, but may fear that doing so will be considered rude. Being informed that shoes-off is encouraged will be a great welcome for these people.

The shoes-on folks might then argue, "Yes, but you can still let people keep their shoes on without imposing on the people who prefer to go shoeless."

However, this is not the case. Firstly, those people who want to take their shoes off may fear, if there are lots of other guests, particularly at a party, that their feet may get squashed by other peoples' shoes. In a crowded party, it can be hard to avoid having people tread on your toes.

Secondly, people who take their shoes off will prefer to walk on a floor that is cleaner. In fact, there is another issue here, as Angie pointed out in a previous post. Some guests will enjoy sitting on the floor. And sitting on the floor is a much more pleasent experience when it is clean. So allowing guests the choice of wearing shoes imposes on those who like to sit on the floor.

The simple truth is that no host can please everybody. However, there are far more good reasons to insist on shoes coming off at the door than for allowing shoes to stay on. Let guests chose between slippers, socks ot barefeet. That is choice enough.

Tribute to Triel Baenre

Triel Baenre is a character in the Forgotten Realms fantasy franchise. She first appeared in novels written by RA Salvatore.

Triel is a Drow, one of the race of evil black skinned elves who dwell underground and who worship the spider goddess Loth. Triel was the daughter of Matron Baenre, head of the ruling Drow house and on her death, became the head of House Baenre. She is evil and cunning, has a bad habit of sleeping with demons (producing some monstrous offspring), but is embarassingly short in stature.

Triel is my favorite character in fantasy literature for the simple reason that she has a shoes-off policy!

In the novel, Siege of Darkness (I think it is that one, it is a few years since I last read that trilogy), she holds a meeting with a Drow mercenary, Jarlaxle, in her private chambers. To protect the plush carpet, she removes her shoes and tells Jarlaxle to remove his boots. He declines, but she warns him that if he makes a hole in the carpet, she will fill it with his head. That is the right attitude!

Do Heavy Metal fans remove their shoes at the door? A Global Perspective

Against

- Heavy Metal music originated in the UK where removing shoes is not the norm.
- Heavy Metal is most popular in South America where people don't normally remove their shoes in homes.

For

- Some of the best ever Heavy Metal bands come from Scandinavia where removing shoes is definitely the norm.
- Heavy Metal also has a big following in Eastern Europe and South East Asia where people always take off their shoes in homes.
- This Heavy Metal fan certainly does!

Degrees of Firmness

re-post

1. You can take your shoes off here if you like.

2. We take our shoes off here.

3. We do like visitors to take their shoes off.

4. Are you alright with taking your shoes off?

5. You don't mind taking your shoes off, do you?

6. Could you take your shoes off, please?

7. Take your shoes off, please.

8. Shoes off.

9. Shoes off now!

Creeping Chasms of Chaotic Delight

All right kids, gather round the screen. Is everyone ready to hear about my latest trip? I can hear the clickety-clack of your keyboards typing the letters, Y-E-S-!-! from here so I’ll begin.
Boulder, Colorado is a magical place. A mere 20hr. drive from Seattle, as the crow flies, and well worth it. Accompanied by my brother, who we shall call Jacob, and his wife, who we will also call Jacob(2), or rather Margielize. We drowned out the deafening silence of boredom with the musical stylings of Tenacious D, Michael Buble, Classic Jazz, Cold Play, and the random selection of music and fuzz found by twitching the radio dial to and fro. We laughed here and there, slept, ate and drank, but mainly stared at the GPS screen counting the grueling miles between Seatown and the land of genetically perfect mutants(is that a paradox?), a.k.a Boulder. We were shacked up at the Golden Buff, a nice little joint replete with continental breakfast items, springy fold out couches, and the occasional Swedish orgy in the hot tub(don’t ask). We crashed at three in the morning, woke up and immediately cruised out to the old neighborhood. It was just as we had left it.


Margielize and the back of our old house.

Literally. Except we weren’t living there anymore. The sun was ablaze, the grass was green, and it was a thrill to re-visit the house in which we had spent 6 long years of our boyhood. I even managed to send V.tree.


Me, in the tree!

We drove around oohing and awing at how little everything had changed. Kind of comforting actually. It was a perfect snapshot in time of when we used to bomb down the steep hills on our mountain bikes, blast the soccer ball back and forth in the spacious field behind our house; and we took pride in pointing out the many houses that once belonged to our long lost friends who had lived in the neighborhood. Jacob remembered the way back to his old friend Jeff Lee’s house and indeed the Lee’s still lived there. Jeff, now long gone, working as a computer dude for Lockheed Martin in Taiwan, was my brother’s best friend while we lived in Boulder. Fortunately his parents remembered us and we ended up arranging a dinner date for the following Sunday. With a full list of things to do, people to see, and places to go we were off once again. The first day was filled with nostalgia as we picked up a friend of Margielize’s at the airport and continued on our blast from the past themed vacation. The Boulder library, Boulder creek, bike trail, and Pearl Street were the main attractions.


A fishing pond by the Boulder Canyon bike trail.

And let’s not forget Old Chicago’s Pizza. I think my taste buds exploded from the sheer euphoria of orgasmic, unbridled, and utterly concentrated deliciousness of the food. One marginally talented street juggler later and we found ourselves locked in battle with the fold out couch of the Golden Buff.


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...



The outdoor theater on the CU campus, where my father has acted several times in the past.


A message of hope on the CU campus.


Saturday started out as an adventure to find crash pads. My brother and I made our way to Neptune Mountaineering while his wife and her friend went on their own way. We scooped up some pads(not cheap!), and swerved up the tightly hugged curves of Flagstaff mountain, cautiously avoiding runners and bicyclists alike. There everywhere!!
There are no pictures of this stop because I left my camera back in the hotel room. Anyhow, I shredded some tippage at Cloudshadow, an immense piece of rock home to some of the more famous(read: hard) lines on the mountain. I managed to get scared on the highball nature of the V.1 there, but I did pull off a send of Hagan’s Wall, a crimping masterpiece, as well as some of the other moderate lines. Delicate, somewhat glassy in places with a split finger crimp at the top, I pulled over pleased, and ready to move on. I tried Just Right, figuring I could easily polish off this two move power problem. I was wrong, in fact I had to stack two pads on a rock just to reach the starting holds, and the top out didn’t look so inviting either. I managed to hit the slopey pocket 5 or 6 times but my feet flew off of the overhanging wall ripping me off the hold with them. Ho hum, I wanted to seek out the problem I came here for anyway. Hollows Way. Notorious for the grade, infamous for the landing(?), now I’m just making stuff up. It was a beautiful looking line, in the guide book, and one that decided to play hide with no seek that day. I ended up wasting an hour of purely good bouldering time looking for that stupid line. My over priced guide book indicated that it was just up from Capstan rock but we hiked the meandering trail only to end up at Red Wall and the Amphitheater staring down at a Hollow’s Way-less field below. In anger I tried a cool looking refrigerator arête that went at V.2. Needless to say in my chipmunk rage I got my ass handed to me. It started to rain, my brother pointed out a foot hold and I sent before the rain got any worse. Session over.
The last part of the day was spent with my bro hiking up the Chataqua trail in between the first and second Flatirons. We were almost to the top of the trail when thunder and lightning set in and a drenching rain poured over us. We were greeted by a fast moving, somewhat experienced looking hiker nearly running in the opposite direction. ‘You think its okay to keep going?’ I asked him, ‘Not unless you’re lightning proof!’ he retorted as he sped off down the trail. We casually started walking back down only to increase our pace drastically at the sound of a rather loud thunder clap. Don’t worry we made it down alive.

Sunday was a trek to Winter Park. In the winter it’s a dope ass ski resort, but in the summer it’s still a dope ass ski resort only with no snow. We were there to dominate the Alpine slide, and if you don’t know what that is you’re not cool enough to read this blog. A large fiberglass pipe snaked its way down the immense snow-less slope, and we were hopped up on low oxygen, and childhood memories, ready to throw ourselves down it. Between runs we managed an overly priced cheeseburger (around $4,000, thank god they let me take out a loan to pay it off), and I got to destroy the overly polished outdoor rock wall. I Sharma growled my way to the top of each line, YES in my TENNIS SHOES! Suck on that Ondra. As I left the wall burning in my glorious wake I may have peeked over my shoulder only to see a 7 year old double dynoing up each line; I did not return. All in all we stomped out 11 laps on the alpine slide, the record is 26 but that guy is a loser. And headed back to Boulder only to be treated by the Lee’s to a 10 course Chinese dinner. I had food creeping back out of my throat at the end. Mrs. Lee ordered in Mandarin and the waiter just kept on bringing out dish after dish. Mongolian beef, Chinese basil chicken, honey walnut shrimp, fried prawns, spring rolls, some type of noodle dish with chicken, beef, prawns, and veggies, honeyed tofu, steamed rice, cilantro/onion/chicken soup, and some sort of beef soup concoction that I was stupid enough to try. The broth consisted of magma, fire, red hot coles, chilies, chili seeds, and dragon’s breath. After I regained consciousness(I blacked out from the heat) it was clear that we had made the right choice in having dinner with these two wonderful people. The Lee’s are number one in hospitality, and for three hours we ate and engulfed ourselves in conversation and laughter. After the meal we also saw a movie, UP, pretty entertaining.

Monday we set out to Estes Park, home of RMNP. A small town with awesome views and world class bouldering a mere 20 minutes in every direction. We met up with a friend of the friend of Margielizes who turned out to be my future wife. Aaaahhhhh…Chamilla. She teaches 8th grade science over the school year and on her summer break works as an EMT park ranger for RMNP. I’m in love! Her energy was invigorating, and I tried to make stupid jokes just to hear her laugh awkwardly in between bites of a huge Belgian waffle. We followed her back to her place and she heaved piles of clothing at us since we were grossly under-dressed for the cold temps and windy affect of the higher altitudes of RMNP. She also bestowed upon us her free pass into the park, saving us $20! As she waved goodbye from her 4-runner I mouthed the words ‘I love you’, and I could have sworn I saw her give me a thumbs up as she drove off in the distance, or maybe she was just adjusting her rear-view mirror. Anyway, we made it into the park and I saw some freakishly cool looking boulders off the side of the road covered in chalk. We drove on by, my mouth gaping.


RMNP


RMNP ranger station.


The trail up to the summit.


Who is that handsome looking man?


Peeking between the rocks.

Swirling up the mountainside were views of snow capped mountains and frozen lakes. We made it to the summit ranger station, also home to the ‘Café in the Sky’, and made the short walk to the summit, a mere 12,000 feet in elevation. After the hallucinations of god massaging my brain subsided due to a lack of oxygenated blood pumping through my veins, we trekked back down the mountain and stopped at a meadow full of grazing elk.


We were greeted as liberators.


Is he...?


Velvety.

We finally made it back to Boulder in order to hike up another trail to scope out some boulders. We arrived at Chataqua just in time for a monstrous thunder storm. Triple, and even quadruple bolts of lightening entertained us as we waited for nature’s temper tantrum to subside. I kept saying, ‘It’ll pass in twenty minutes.’ And for once I was right.


The Flatirons, from right to left:1st, 2nd, 3rd.



Why it's good to wait to hike until after the storm is over.

We hiked up the trail with a double rainbow at our backs. When we got to the boulder field I ran around gawking and gaping at the boulders totally psyched to come back the following day and get some bouldering in.


The foothills shrouded in the aftermath of the rainstorm.


Jacob and Margielize.


J and M.

Tuesday. My bro and I rented a pad and panted our way up to the boulder field we scoped out the day before, known as the Satellite Boulders. The Sattelites are a collection of boulders nestled between the second and third Flatirons. The approach is steep, infact I’ve never done so much work for a few hours of bouldering. However it was worth it. The rock is top notch. A hybrid cross of Smith Rock-like volcanic tuff, quartzite, and Maple Canyon-esque conglomerate (this last part makes it sound like choss but it’s far from it!) We started off at the Stardust boulder where I did a few problems including the stellar Aerogel. Jacob even managed a V.1! Nice!


Me going horizontal on Aerogel(V.5)


Making the lunge!

From there we sampled a lot of moderate problems. I tried a V.8 called Face Full of Brian but didn’t manage to stick the crux move. According to my guide book there are only maybe 20 problems up here, but according to the internet which I cruised the night before, there are between 90 and 100, in this one area! Leavenworth aint got nuthin’ on that!


Jacob crushing at the Sattelites.




Me on Re-Entry Burn(V.6), and the backside of the BBC boulder.

The best boulder I saw that day, was ironically labeled in the guidebook as the Best Boulder in the County(BBC for short). Many striking and hard lines crimped and sloped their way up this overhanging beast, Grundel City Boy(V.9), Balance in Nature(V.6), and The Turning Point(V.9, actually located on top of the boulder on a mammoth sized pillar that fell over and created a nice over hung slab of rock) were all spectacular to see. However the spotlight most undeniably fell on a problem called Fleshfest. This amazing highball prow left me speechless. V.10 from the low, and V.6 from the high, it was streaked with red, black, and tan hues, as well as lichen. The pictures don’t really do it justice:


The essence of a boulder problem.


Me straight wimpin' out!

Fleshfest is one of those lines that inspire you to climb, regardless of the grade. I had to try it at least from the stand start but only having one pad and a nasty crippling fall below I backed down. I would be willing to come back just to try and climb this one line. Perfect.
The day jogged on by, and as my skin got thinner and thinner we finally hiked back down and hung out at Chataqua, pleased to have spent the last day of our trip in one of the most beautiful places in Boulder.
That last night we walked up and down Pearl Street and took in an amazing street performance by none other than the world class juggler Derek-Derek. As he ridiculed passers-by for not stopping at his show, made jokes, and kept the mood humorous and up-beat, he also juggled fire vigorously, included members of the audience in his show, and flung his ‘diablo’ high into the air only to catch it on a wire thin piece of string behind his back. It was a perfect way to remember the trip and add another chapter to our book of memories surrounding Boulder, Co.


Goodbye Boulder! I will miss all of the stunningly hot women, finely sculpted boulders, and spectacular views!

Put It On Repeat

Greg nabs the first move on Poison Prow(V.2).

Whew.
Another full day at the crag. It will be nice to have some down time before getting back there. Tomorrow marks my last day of house/dog sitting here in Seattle and I will miss being so close to Little si. This morning I met Greg at the usual time in the parking lot. REI had a tent set up and was handing out free snacks. We bypassed the snacks and with rain looming made it to World Wall. The air was really cool and even though I obliterated myself yesterday I felt good. We went through the usual motions of warming up, Rainy Day, and then I tried to get Greg to lead BLM-5 but he opted out of leading due to an overworked liver from the bottle of wine the night before. He still managed it clean on TR though.
All the usual's were showing up, and by that I mean the rock stars Bret and Ben. I decided to throw down too and get on Psychosomatic. To my surprise I managed the repeat, I went for the extension but made a stupid foot placement and fell. I was still really psyched to have repeated this once long standing project of mine. This was a crucial step for me because now I want to start working Gerbil Killer, hopefully my first 5.13a. But we'll see how that goes on Tuesday. I was feeling so good that I stepped right and hopped on Techno, well Abo anyway, Ben was warming up on his .13d/14a project(?) Pornification and I thought he was just on Chronic when he crossed me above. We chatted for a bit and then I decided to just stop at the Abo chains instead of crossing ropes. Still buzzing I went for Hydro and made it to the second clip on the extension before noticing that the rest of the permanent draws were missing. Is this karma or what?! I've decided on Tuesday I'll throw a few perma-draws on the end because I want to start working this sweet and technical line into my circuit here. If I can start running laps on Techno, Hydro, and Psycho I hope that I can get in shape and hopefully the stuff I really want to send this summer will go down fast. We'll just have to wait and see...
We did manage a little bouldering and a lot of hiking at Rattlesnake lake. The Snakehead boulder was half submerged but we did manage a few laps on Poison Prow and the other shorter problems to the right. We then headed up the trail to try and find some more chossy giants, which we did. Unfortunately neither of us had brought out blowtorch, chainsaw, pressure washer, and chisel, so we settled for some conversation and a nice little hike. Thanks for the great weekend Greg! Already psyched for Tuesday!


Me at the lake.

School's Out for Summer!

Mika in the background sending Aborigine(5.11b).

I don't have too much time to write but I thought I'd give a quick trip report from yesterday. Don't worry, no notable sends or anything, just notable good times and people. As I dangled from the end of a rope, just having taken the usual fall off Psycho, I heard an all too familiar voice say, "Nice Micah!". I turned my head to look downward and saw Daniel!! Holy crap, this was weird, just last Sunday I was mentioning to Nick how it would be cool to see and climb with Daniel again, and low and behold here he was. Jeremy was in tow, and we all had a good laugh together and got caught up on what each of us were doing. Congratulations to Daniel for finishing his masters degree in Environmental Studies, nice one Dan!!!
Greg and I had already been at the crag for a little over an hour and were on our thrid pitch of the day. I got Greg almost to the chains of Girls in the Gym for a warm up(trying to throw Greg in the deep end). Then he did really well getting to and almost through the crux pull on Psychowussy. I pranced around the crag like an elf on crack chattering and giggling, Mika and Emily had shown up as well and I was psyched to have good people everywhere I looked, grunting and growling their way up Abo, Psycho, Reptiles, BLM-5, and Son of Jesus. At the end of the day I had to force myself up one last pitch before calling it quits, all in all Greg managed BLM-5 clean on top rope. I got in 8 pitches in 7 hours(and fuck I was exhausted!!). Jeremy and Mika both redpointed Aborigine, sick!!! And Emily made it to the chains on Psychowussy, very impressive especially if you take into account the amount of Whiskey she drank last night.
All in all I'm really tired, but about to head out and do it all over again. Maybe even throw in some bouldering today, why not?
See you in the deep end of the sharp end!!


Daniel contemplates Aborigine(5.11b)


Emily moving into the crux of Psychowussy(5.11b)

This Never Gets Old

Nick does the splits on Abo.

Sometimes I feel like I could climb at the same crag on the same routes for the rest of my life and it would never get old; it would never cease to become challenging; and best of all the illumination behind the intricacy and beauty of moving up and over rock would never dim.
Yesterday was a great example of this. My very good friend Nick had finally returned from completing his first year pursuing his BSN at Howard University in our nations capitol. Thrilled that he was finally back I called him up and the usual trip to Little si was underway. Another good friend of mine Greg decided to join us as well, seeing as how he had not climbed on ropes in quite some time(15 plus years?) he was a little anxious as to what laid ahead but excited as well and I knew we were in for a treat. We hit the Little si trail around noon:thirty and greeted by the usual gobs of hikers('look, people who walk for fun!') we finally made it to World Wall where a few groups were already making use of the heavily featured soaring gray/white/black walls. A few celebs. were there. Bryan Burdo was making the rounds, always good to chat it up with him, and a few young up and comers, Bret Johnston and Alex Fritz were destroying some quality routes.
As a side note it was finally good to meet Bret, he is an awesome dude who crushes and it was fun to talk to him about the 'draw incident' and root each other on, me on my repeats and him on his mini proj. Black Ice, which he subsequently sent that day. Also, Alex flashed Techno, sheesh!! Seeing these young guys crush routes that I can only dream about sending in the distant future kinda makes me feel like Boone Speed in King Lines, "Well, I had a good run, now it's time to go get a job".
Nick and I both did a warm up lap on Rainy Day, then set up some good 5.9 top ropes for Greg to get back into the groove of things on. He flashed both Reptiles on Tr and the 5.9 just right of Son of Jesus, I forget the name. Plus we went over some belaying techniques and anchoring in and threading the rope through the chains kinda stuff. Greg was really enthusiastic about learning how to belay and getting out more to the crag and up on the sharp end of things. NICE!



Greg just hangin' out.

Nick gave a quick burn on Techno letting it all hang out after a few whippers. I managed to get past the first crux but totally fucked up my feet at the barn door part and just gave up. It was still good to get back on that thing after so long, this is the kind of route I need to start doing regularly. Next we got on Psycho, I fell in the usual place but finished it up with a hang and checked out Flatliner which is amazing!! The rock quality past the first chains on this wall is spectacular and I'm really psyched on this particular line. I got the run down from Bret about the crux, turns out it's at the end and its supposedly a heinous V.7, yikes!!
Nick gave it a shot as well falling just before the third clip. We moved over one more and Nick decided to go for Bust the Rhythm. Now, it has been a long time since he has climbed here, let alone even climbed on a rope, so I had to give it to him for the effort, always something I get psyched on. But, he will definitely send this rig soon, a few more trips. Greg decided he wanted to step up his game and get on something harder than 5.9 so we walked up the pee corner to the left side of WW1. I took a quick peek in someones guide book so we could find out where the .10c up there was, I remember this line being quality. I placed the draws and while doing so fell in LOVE. This is hands down my new all time favorite route anywhere!!!! A short steep section at the beginning involving two crimps and a lock off to a flat jug rail leads you into a highly textured and featured black slab, and then to more jugs at the top for the finish, I had a blast doing this route again and now I think I'm going to do it every time I come to Little si. Greg almost managed the flash on TR but he didn't give up and got to the chains, YES!! His effort was very inspiring and we were all psyched.


Greg reaches through the crux on BLM-5(5.10c)


More Greg action.


Greg nears the chains.


Nick gave it a burn as well and then we headed back down to do another lap on Psycho. I got it again with one hang, but with much better form this time and I feel like I can link through the crux now with confidence. I gave the extension another go over and it looks good but I didn't manage to get much farther than the go before and took a fun whipper, it's a sick line and I love the fact that you are doing boulder problems 100 feet up. Nick gave a go as well and then we wrapped it up on Bust tha' Move. This time I managed the crux with a bit more style than last time. We were all grinning, groaning, and due to an unnatural amount of Fiber One bars, farting. It was about 9:30 when we headed back down the trail to the parking lot.



Me on Psychosomatic(5.12d)



Finally hitting that jug rail, feels soooo nice.



Nick at the chains of Psychowussy.


Nick in the middle of Psychosomatic.


It's these kinds of trips that make me really psyched for future out of my league projects, long days at Little si, and just hanging out with good people. The energy all day was positive and playful and I can't stop thinking about getting back to Little si. I'll be in Seattle this Wednesday through Sunday so if anyone reading this is in Seattle and wants to get out five days in a row to Little si drop me a line. I've got one more day of class(psyched), and then it will be a week until I hit the road for my Colorado trip. I have no idea what awaits me out there but I'm open and absolutely looking forward to getting back to my old stomping grounds, where it all started, and hopefully getting some bouldering done.


Please do not feed these to Nicholas Mathis, PLEASE!!!